The invention herein pertains to inhalation therapy and particularly pertains to an assembly and method which utilizes a manual pumping action to ensure complete medication dosage delivery to the patient.
Medications for bronchitis and other common respiratory ailments are conventionally sold in metered does inhalers (MDI) which have pressurized canisters to release a prescribed dosage quantity of medicants upon each manual activation. Many patients frequently use MDIs for easy, portable, self-medication. Other patients with more serious health conditions utilize various types of inhalation therapy devices such as set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,020,530 and 5,479,920. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,467 provides a MDI in combination with a manual breathing unit. Other common types of mechanical respiratory devices include electrical powered ventilators, oxygen tanks and the like.
It is commonplace to utilize a collapsible reservoir with an MDI canister for discharge therein. Such devices are often used in ventilator breathing circuits. It is also usual to provide a rigid, transparent, cylindrical reservoir with a MDI canister for containment of the medicants before such enters the patient""s lungs.
Conventional methods of delivering respiratory medicants often work very well under normal circumstances with a cooperative patient. However, young children are often frightened by inhalation apparatus which are attached to their face and as a result hold their breath, preventing intake of the medicants. Sometimes elderly patients become obstinate and will not cooperate with medical personnel or some, for physical reasons have difficulty in breathing properly. Breathing too fast can also cause problems in that the medicants are taken into the lungs and are expirated too quickly, before being absorbed. Under these conditions the medicants are not absorbed and the patient does not ultimately benefit from the prescribed dosage. Other patients also lack adequate muscle tone for deep breaths due to advanced disease status or heavy sedation.
Thus, with the problems and difficulties of prior art inhalation therapy devices, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide an inhalation therapy assembly and method which will conveniently and easily allow the patient to receive the proper prescribed medicant dosage.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide an inhalation assembly which can be used with either a facial mask or an endotrachael tube.
It is yet a further objection of the present invention to provide an inhalation therapy assembly which includes a collapsible reservoir which can be used to manually pump medicants to the patient.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide an inhalation therapy assembly which utilizes a standard peep valve which is adjustable to provide the needed resistance for a particular patient.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.
The aforesaid and other objectives are realized by providing an inhalation assembly which includes a MDI canister housing which is affixed to a conventional coil spring supported, transparent, flexible reservoir for receiving medicants therefrom. As the medicants are released from the pressurized aerosol canister, such medicants flow into the expanded reservoir and a terminal diaphragm valve in communication therewith closes due to the pressure associated therewith. As the patient breathes in, a proximal one-way valve on the reservoir opens to allow the medicants to flow from the reservoir to the lungs of the patient through a means connected to a delivery tube, either an endotracheal tube or a conventional facial mask. An adjustable exhalation valve prevents the patient from over breathing, i.e., expiring the medicants too quickly. Should there be a problem with the patient""s breathing, through either lack of cooperation, fear or voluntary physical restraints, the assisting medical personnel can simply xe2x80x9cpumpxe2x80x9d the assembly manually by urging the reservoir to a collapsed position, thereby driving the medicants from the reservoir through the proximal one-way valve into the delivery tube which is attached to for example, a facial mask. The reservoir, which is spring loaded will then recover and the pumping action is repeated until all the medicants are introduced into the patient""s lungs, thereby insuring the patient of receiving the full dosage prescribed, without significant residual amounts remaining in the reservoir.